July 25, 1899
Day 5 of the strike
"Your bill," the waiter said, setting the piece of paper down on the table.
Skittery, Tumbler, and Emma all dug into their pockets. They each dumped what they had in the middle of the table. Adelaide counted it up, but they were still several cents short.
"Maybe I got a little more at the lodging house," said Skittery.
Adelaide shook her head. "I got it." She pulled a few coins out of her pocket and added it to the pile.
"Thanks, Aide," said Tumbler.
"Sorry," Emma mumbled toward the table.
"Emma, you don't need to apologize." Adelaide reached across the table and took her hand. "You're part of the family now."
Emma gave her a small smile.
"Now you two go on, but be careful," she said. "Stay around the Square."
Tumbler nodded as he and Emma slid out of the booth and ran out of Tibby's.
Skittery put his arm around Adelaide, resting it on the back of the booth behind her.
"So when did you come into all this money?" he smirked.
Adelaide shrugged. "I worked and I saved."
"Yeah right." He poked her side. "Spill."
Adelaide shrugged. "I guess we can thank Ralphie for lunch." Skittery's smile disappeared. "I stole his stash before I left. He certainly wasn't going to need it anymore." She wasn't lying - she did steal Ralph's savings before she left, but it remained untouched under a floorboard under her bed.
Skittery nodded. "A free lunch is the least he owes you." Adelaide didn't respond - she didn't even look at him.
They paid for lunch and walked out of Tibby's, hand in hand. It was nice to get out of the stuffy restaurant. Not that the street was any better, with its stifling heat, but at least there was a slight breeze that made it bearable.
"You know, you never talk about Brooklyn."
Adelaide shrugged. "Not much to talk about."
"You seem pretty chatty around Spot Conlon."
Adelaide looked up at him. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"You've been sneaking off to Brooklyn lately," said Skittery. "Don't think I haven't noticed."
Adelaide swallowed the lump forming in her throat. She bit her lip and watched the ground in front of her as they walked down the street.
"Aide, that should be my job." Skittery stopped and turned toward her.
She looked up at him.
"I should be the one you can go to with any problem, big or small. I should be the one taking burdens away from you. I should be the one you open up to. But ever since you came back from Brooklyn it's like there's this part of you that you keep from me."
At first, Adelaide was relieved. He knew she was sneaking off to Brooklyn, but he thought she was going to talk to Spot, not sell papers.
It was then that Aide realized how much her silence had hurt Skittery. He'd been nothing but sweet and supportive ever since Ralphie had first taken her away, and she repaid that with silence.
Skittery took her hand. "We been together, what…a year and a half? I ain't goin' no where. Ever."
Adelaide bit her lip, feeling the tears sting her eyes. Although they'd been together that long, her stomach still flipped when he looked at her like that.
"One day, I promise you, we're gonna get married. But if that's gonna happen, I don't want us to have any secrets."
"Bad stuff happened over there," she said, wiping away a tear that had escaped. "I just wanna forget it."
"You're never going to," said Skittery. "Don't think I don't notice when you flinch if I come up behind you. You never used to do that."
"I'm just afraid of how you're gonna react when you find out everything."
"Aide, everything you did over there, you did to survive. None of it will change how I feel about you."
Adelaide took his hand and they walked down the street again. Shortly they got to City Hall Park and they found a bench to sit on.
Adelaide took a breath before speaking. "You know about the pickpocketing. And you know he made me share his bed." Skittery nodded, resting his arm on the back of the bench. "He'd make me turn over all the money I stole. He'd give it to his sister so she could pay for her apartment."
"His sister…Spot's girl?"
Adelaide nodded. "He'd pay for everything. He'd make me do panel games with him and his boys…you know, where a man gets seduced into a room, and the boys open a panel and steal his wallet?"
Skittery tensed at the word "seduced," but he didn't say anything.
"He never made me do anything with the men," she added quickly, putting her hand on his arm. "He'd always burst in at the last minute and scare the guy enough to get out of there."
Adelaide looked down at her hands. "The rest is going to be a little tough to swallow."
"It's okay, Aide."
"He made me share his bed, but he didn't touch me. At first. When Fire and Blade took me back to Brooklyn after I ran home after you got soaked…that was the first night Ralphie…forced me."
Skittery clenched his jaw and his fists, his worst fear coming true.
"I didn't want to," she said, her voice cracking. "But he'd make me do it with the boys listening on the other side of the sheet."
Skittery tried to keep his breathing even, reminding himself that Ralphie was dead - or else Skittery would've gone to Brooklyn and killed the guy himself right then.
Adelaide stayed quiet.
"Is that it?"
Adelaide shook her head. She swallowed the lump in her throat. "He got me pregnant."
Skittery felt himself go numb. "You had a baby?"
Adelaide shook her head. "He made me get rid of it." At that, Adelaide lost all of her resolve and sobbed.
Skitter pulled her close to his side. "I'm so sorry, Aide," he said, kissing her hair. She held onto him, sobbing into his shoulder.
"I wanted that baby so bad," she said. "I would've done anything to keep it."
Skittery was quiet, letting it all sink in. What did Adelaide mean when she said she wanted to keep Ralphie's baby? Why had she kept all of this to herself for so long?
Although, it explained a lot. He'd caught her staring at babies on the street, wiping tears away from her cheek when she thought he didn't see.
Adelaide kept her cheek resting on his shoulder, her sobs subsiding. "Are you angry?"
"Of course not," he said softly, rubbing her back. "None of that was your fault."
"I was so scared to tell you. I wasn't sure how you'd feel about it all."
"Aide," he pulled back and looked at her, "none of that changes how I feel about you." He wiped away a few stray tears with his thumb.
"Something's bugging you." Just like he could read her, she could read him.
Skittery shrugged and shook his head. "It's nothing."
"Tell me."
Skittery hesitated. "You said you wanted to keep his baby…"
"Skitts, that had nothing to do with Ralphie. At the time, I thought I'd be in Brooklyn forever. I hated the thought of the baby being Ralphie's, but…it was my baby."
Skittery nodded. She put her hand on his cheek and leaned in and kissed him. He put his arms around her and pulled her close.
"We'll have our own baby one day, right?" said Skittery.
Adelaide smiled. "Right."
She leaned against Skittery in silence. It felt good to tell him all of it, though it had been far from easy. She knew he didn't enjoy hearing it, but he was glad she had opened up to him. It felt good that he didn't turn her away to treat her differently once he heard the truth.
Well, most of the truth. Now that everything was out in the open, Adelaide couldn't stop thinking about the night Ralphie died. It was the only thing left about Brooklyn that Skittery didn't know.
That, and she was a scab.
But not today, she thought.
